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| Subject: I think not | |
Author: Trixta (UK) | [ Next Thread |
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] Date Posted: 15:16:37 11/14/04 Sun In reply to: Ed Harris (London) 's message, "Air strip at Stornoway, not FW!" on 18:14:57 11/13/04 Sat Did I say I admire sincerity in a politican? If I did I sure as hell didn't mean it! (he-he) The only politicans who stick to their guns are the madmen - Bush, Hitler, Cromwell, Thatcher. Politics itself is about hypocrisy - do as they (the politicians) say, not as they do. As for sincerity, well, okay, Bush is sincere (in a sense) but so's the nutter in ward 3 claiming to be Napoleon. Sincerity in meaning does not equate to a good thing. Hitler was sincere in thinking that the Jews were the root of all evil, doesn't make him right. Bush is sincere in thinking that the Islamic world represents the greatest threat to the 'free world' - surely the biggest threats are the continual erosion of liberties that actually define what it means to be free. Bush sincerely, possibly, believes that every US citizen has the right to cheap petrol at the cost of x00,000 muslim lives and several thousand US ones at the same time (not accounting for environmental damage). This does not make him right, only committed (or should that be committable?). Every politician is exactly that, a politician - a person whose very essence is to appear to be all things to all voters. I'd trust any of them as far as I could throw them - a theory I'd actually like to test, preferably off the top of Ben Nevis. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: My point entirely! | |
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Author: Ed Harris (London) [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 16:50:28 11/14/04 Sun I don't know about Maggie, but generally you have taken my point: sincerity isn't always everything. Would you prefer Tony Blair or Adolf Hitler? Tony, of course, in spite of the fact that he is as slippery as a well-oiled eel and Adolf was deadly sincere. This reminds me of a famous survey which was recently undertaken in France to investigate what qualities voters looked for in politicians, and what sort of politicians would be elected if these criteria were allowed to determine the shape of the political nation. The participants were given brief descriptions of three politicians and asked for whom they would vote. The first was a short-tempered man, born into fabulous wealth and privilege. At university he is said to have smoked opium, and in his later life he drank half a bottle of whisky every night, stayed up until the early hours and was rarely awake before Mid-day. The second was a habitual womaniser, also from an old, moneyed family. He used a sarcastic and flippant sense of humour to evade awkward questions. He often withheld information from his government and his chiefs-of-staff to the benefit of his own strategy and to prove himself right, and took the attitude that a political leader’s job was to direct the nation rather than serve it. The third was from humble origins. He entered politics after fighting for his country in the Great War. He got up early every day, took his job seriously, and was very earnest in his opinions. He seldom drank, had been a vegetarian, was unmarried, and throughout his life aspired to be an artist. The participants of the survey overwhelmingly responded in favour of the third candidate. The other two received hardly a single vote. In the feedback from the poll, the pollsters revealed that the descriptions were of real people. The first was Sir Winston Churchill. The second was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The third was Adolf Hitler. [ Post a Reply to This Message ] |